


The Encounter

by our_bus_is_full



Series: An Endless Night [1]
Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Alternate Canon, F/M, M/M, Multi, Other, Twilight Renaissance, Twilight Series Rewrite
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:48:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26455141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/our_bus_is_full/pseuds/our_bus_is_full
Summary: Seventeen year old Bella Swan has just moved to Forks, a quiet town under the constant cover of rain. She wasn't expecting much more than an uneventful end to her adolescence. When her dad, the county medical examiner, warns her of suspicious animal attacks in the area, Bella begins to suspect that Forks is hiding more than it seems. As she and her best friend Jacob Black begin looking into the attacks, they realize that something more sinister than wild animals is responsible. Meanwhile, Bella finds herself falling for the school pretty boy, Edward Cullen, but he's hiding secrets of his own... Could he be at the heart of the mysteries in Forks?
Relationships: Alice Cullen/Jasper Hale, Carlisle Cullen/Esme Cullen, Edward Cullen/Bella Swan, Emmett Cullen/Rosalie Hale, Harry Clearwater/Sue Clearwater, James/Laurent/Victoria (Twilight), Phil Dwyer/Renée Dwyer
Series: An Endless Night [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1923097
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	1. Prologue

Three hunters pursued their prey. They shined dully, like precious stones on an ocean floor, and they moved easily despite the decades of undergrowth grasping at their ankles. The blond male led the pack. He crouched low, inhaled deeply, and grinned. His trail was still fresh. He gave a signal to the others and they fanned out while he stayed on the central track. 

They whipped through the forest at breakneck speed, almost blindingly fast. They came upon their prey in seconds. The human froze, petrified with fear, staring only at the blond male and his blood red eyes. The blond grinned again and waved at his pitiful prey. Within a second the other two hunters sprung from either side of the human and began to feast. 

The three hunters moved onward, leaving behind a messy corpse. The dark haired male spoke in an archaic French accent, regency era. “How many more on the list?” 

The red haired female wiped the blood delicately from her pointed chin, “Caius says we oughta leave a body every mile.” The black haired male and the blond mulled this over. 

“Right, and how many miles left?” the blond asked.

“I ‘spose about a hundred or so.” The woman fixed her now black eyes on the stars, as if she were factoring them into her calculations. Her hair looked like a wildfire, an illusion that was completed by the bits of odd debris that stuck out from her curls. All three hunters were dressed in tattered rags, mismatched fabrics and accoutrements haphazardly thrown together from different eras. 

They had been traveling together for centuries, possibly a millennia. The hunters had never had a boss until now though the circumstances of their employment were more threatening than contractual. Their employer was the only organization in their world capable of ending them as quickly and competently as they slaughtered their own prey. None of them were comfortable with the new arrangement but it was, as the humans say, do or die. 

The three hunters walked slowly, the blond inhaling deeply with every step though not for want of air. They stopped after a few hundred feet and stood idly, unsure of their direction. This was a new feeling for them. In all their centuries together they had never needed to think about where to go next. Their lives for so long had been an onward progression, an endless directionless hunt. 

The black haired male produced a much worn piece of paper from within his lace sleeves. “Victoria, can you read this map?”

“Of course,” she huffed.

“I mean, Victoria will you  _ please  _ take a look at the map?” The black haired male gave a mock bow. The wild woman snagged the paper from him and stared intently at the map, turning it left and right, eventually rotating it completely. 

“Ah, I made a miscalculation,” a smile spread across her face, "we only got 50 bodies left, boys.” 


	2. Bella's Fresh Start

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed some background details of a few of the characters, most notably Bella. Instead of Phoenix, she is moving from San Francisco. Renee, who I thought was a pretty bad mother based on the books, is more overtly narcissistic and dependent on Bella. I've also changed some of the student's names.

Bella Swan had been absent from all of her 17 years thus far. At least, that’s what it felt like. Maybe she was being unfair, after all she had probably had a few good years as a child. If she had, she couldn’t remember. As far as Bella was concerned, life was something that happened to other people, luckier people. 

That isn’t to say that nothing  _ ever  _ happened to her. She had friends, some, and books. She had made out with boys she shouldn’t have and tried drugs she definitely shouldn’t have. She had listened to music and gone to art galleries and museums. She had even been to several pagan festivals that Reneé dragged her to. Most of Bella’s life, however, had revolved entirely around Reneé.

It should have been the other way around, Bella knew. Mothers were supposed to take care of their daughters, but Bella had always taken care of Reneé. She couldn’t figure out how Reneé had thrived before Bella was born but she assumed there had been a long string of caretakers left in Reneé’s wake, the last of which she knew was her father Charlie. If Charlie’s emotional state was any indication of the future that awaited Bella, after she had been used up and thrown out by her mother, then she wanted no part of it. 

It wasn’t Charlie’s fault that he was so stunted, what middle aged man is in touch with his feelings, after all? And he did try to be a good father, Bella could see that. He never asked Bella to take care of him, he never asked her to pay the bills or plan the meals like Reneé did, but he depended on Bella all the same. 

Bella had had a lot of time to think about her parents on the flight from San Francisco to Seattle. The inflight entertainment was nauseating as always so she had nothing to distract her from her reflections. She thought about what her therapist had told her. _You don’t have to be the parent, Bella, you’re allowed to be a kid,_ but Bella couldn’t remember the last time she felt like a child- reckless, goofy, irresponsible. As best as she could figure, she had last been unapologetically immature when Reneé and Charlie were still together. She had been 5 years old when they split, barely old enough to forge long term memories. 

Her time as a child was a blur of small hands and small faces. Monkey bars, skinned knees, the suction marks left behind from swimming goggles, the glow of a fistful of fireflies. She couldn’t remember her pre-school, her macaroni art, learning to read, any of it. And it’s not like Reneé was one to hold onto the sentimental evidence of Bella’s childhood. The only proof that she’d been a kid at all were blurry photos of a small black girl with big hair and dirty jeans running from the camera or awkwardly posing for a first day of school snapshot. 

Bella flew into the next chapter of her life with this thought in mind:  _ I will be a teenager. For the first and last time in my life, I will be a teenager. I will drink cheap beer, I will dance badly, and I will not be the parent of a 42 year old child anymore.  _

She checked her phone when she landed- Reneé had not called. Her last words to her only daughter were “Thank you, Bella, thank you so much.” 

So it was as a favor to her infantile mother that she had uprooted her thin green life before it could flourish and relocated to an overcast town where the trees had long since adapted to the persistent lack of sunlight. Her only expectations were a quiet town and a quiet father and a rainy day. 

Charlie was waiting for Bella at the airport with a small hand-painted sign. Bella’s heart melted at this. He wrapped her in a hug and asked about her flight. They spent the rest of the drive to Forks in silence, the occasional crackle of the radio breaking into their shared mute reverie. 

Charlie broke the comfortable silence, “So, your hair is longer.”

“Um, yeah, I’ve been growing it out, I guess.” Bella looked at her hands. She wanted to ask how he’d been but she knew he would only say something like “Good, work’s been good,” so she didn’t see much of a point in saying any more. 

When they pulled up to the small white house with green shutters, there was a rusted red truck in the driveway. That was new. As they got closer Bella also noticed two men, no, a man and a boy, both with long straight black hair. The man sat in a wheelchair and wore a black cowboy hat and a big grin. The boy looked uncomfortable. 

“Bella, you remember Billy Black and his boy, Jacob, right?” Charlie said as he opened Bella’s door. 

“Yeah of course,” Bella shook Billy’s hand. Now that she was standing in front of them she could remember summers long ago spent along the beach with a young boy. She remembered telling scary stories around a fire and reading tattered comic books under a large woven blanket. She hugged Jacob tightly, remembering now that this boy was likely her very first friend. 

Her hug seemed to evaporate his tension and he moved easily now. She looked at the truck and looked back at Jacob. “Yours?” 

“Yours, actually,” he grinned, proud. “I rebuilt the engine myself for you.”

Billy and Charlie shared a warm look, “We figured you’d be needing a ride. Gets a bit tough to bike around here in the winter.” 

Jacob showed Bella the truck as Billy and Charlie chatted on the driveway. “You know how to drive stick, right?” Jacob asked. “The clutch is a little sticky, I couldn’t fix that.”

“I’m sure I’ll get used to it,” Bella smiled. Forks had pleasantly surprised her twice so far. She felt a swell of hope, maybe this would be better for her than she thought. “It’s perfect, really Jake.” 

Jacob and Billy left after they were sure Bella was happy with her new old truck and Charlie showed Bella to her room. 

“I didn’t change it. After you left, I mean,” Charlie stated, “I did find you a desk though. I thought you’d need it, you know. Homework.” He seemed like he wasn’t used to talking so much in his own empty house.

“It’s great, dad, thanks.” Bella set her bags down and Charlie left her to unpack, patting her on the arm as he went. 

He turned back, “Oh and, happy birthday, Bells. Sorry I couldn’t be there.”

Bella smiled sadly at Charlie and turned her attention back on her room. She felt like an archaeologist going through layers of her old lives. There were clumsily made craft projects from fourth grade, a science medal from middle school, books that she hadn’t thought of since she first read them at age 13. She ran her fingers idly over the desk, looking around in wonder at just how stable this room had been for the past four years. Charlie wasn’t lying, he really hadn’t changed a thing. Even the embarrassingly bright sheets that a twelve year old Bella had insisted on were still crumpled on the bed- as if she had just gotten out of that bed this morning. 

She changed the sheets to the lilac linens she had brought with her. She set her worn copy of The Ultimate Guide to the Galaxy in a place of reverence on her desk, it was her most beloved book. She found a stack of photos in the desk drawer and sat on the floor to look through them all. In the middle of the stack was a photo of her and the boy Jacob. They must have only been 11 at the time. They were gangly and pimpled and happy, arms loped easily around one another. Bella smiled at the photo, though she couldn’t remember the day it was taken, and tacked it onto the bulletin board above the desk.

She hung up a few of her new sweaters and coats and, deciding that that would have to be good enough for tonight, sprawled across the bed and fell into a deep sleep. 

***

Bella didn’t have much time to adjust to the new rhythm of her life with Charlie before she began school. She arrived on a Saturday in the middle of September and was set to start school that Monday. Forks High School, home of the Spartans. Creative name. Bella was, reluctantly, very nervous for her first day of school. 

Everyone at the high school had known each other practically from birth. There was one pre-school in Forks, one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school. In a town of just over 3,000 people, there isn’t much of an opportunity to meet strangers. Bella felt like an interloper. She didn’t know what kind of dynamics would be at play when she walked through the doors. Would people be excited for a fresh face? Would she wreck the imperceptible balance that had been well established since kindergarten? Had they ever even gotten a new student before? 

Forks didn’t seem like the kind of place people moved  _ to _ . 

Bella changed her outfit three times before school, brushed her teeth twice, and scrubbed her face once over. She decided to pull her hair back from her face with a yellow silk headband, to make herself seem more open. Her outfit- a bright thrifted sweater, baggy jeans, and thin boots- would have to be good enough. She didn’t know what people dressed like up here and her only frame of reference was Charlie and his million and one flannel button downs. She hoped she wouldn’t stand out too much. Maybe the yellow head band was too much?

She didn’t have time to second guess her choices; Charlie handed her a slice of toast and ushered her out the door. 

“You’re fixing to be late, girlie, shake a leg.” 

“Alright, alright. I’ll see you later, dad.” Bella slung her bag over her shoulder and got into the truck.  _ My truck _ , she reminded herself. Jake was right, the clutch was sticky. She took a long time to get used to the behemoth and by the time she arrived at Forks High, the first bell had already rung. 

_ Great _ , thought Bella, _ late to the semester, late to the first day. Just groovy _ . 

She didn’t pay much attention to her first two periods; she listened just enough to learn that, thankfully, Forks High was a bit behind her own school. At least this first week would be easy enough. Her third class was gym, a painfully awkward affair for her. In California, she only needed to take gym freshman year and felt indignant that she was forced right back into it in Forks. 

Immediately, the peppiest girl Bella had ever seen approached her. She was small with a blonde bouncing pony tail and perfectly straight teeth. 

“Hey!” Though Bella had been awake for hours by now, she felt that it was still far too early for the blonde girl’s enthusiasm. Maybe there wasn’t ever a right time for forced vivacity. “You’re Bella, right? I’m Jessica Stanley, or just Jess, ha. How are you liking your first day? I’m class president so-”

A white boy with the eyes and personality of a golden retriever jogged over to Jess and threw his arm around her shoulders. “Be cool, Jess, don’t wig her out.” He was clearly trying very hard to be cool himself. 

“This is Mike Newton,” Jess said, “he’s the  _ vice  _ president.” She seethed ever so slightly and Bella thought that Mike and Jess seemed like the kind of high school sweethearts that would have a perfectly long and unhappy marriage. 

“Yeah, I’m Bella,” she shrugged, “I like it here I guess. I’ve only been here for like, two hours.” Mike laughed disproportionately at this. 

“So you’re from San Fran, right? California  _ gurrl _ .” Mike was trying too hard again, Jess elbowed him in the ribs. 

“Oh yeah, fine fresh, fierce.” Bella joked. She hated that song. She wanted an out from this conversation but Mike and Jess were both staring at her expectantly, like they wanted her to be cooler than she was coming off. There were other black kids at this school, right? Maybe they already thought she was interesting just by virtue of her novelty here. Maybe they expected her to bust a rhyme. 

What Bella didn’t realize was that they were waiting for  _ her  _ to approve of  _ them _ . She was right in her assumption that they didn’t get new students often and for them it felt a little like judgement day. Would the new girl from a big city like them? Bella had a hard time believing that anyone would crave her approval; she was too focused on fitting herself in. 

Thankfully, the gym teacher blew her whistle just then, breaking Bella from her rumination and saving her from the searching eyes of Jess and Mike. The two invited her to sit with them at lunch as they broke off into teams. They had to play volleyball and, luckily, Bella got to be a floater. She wouldn’t have the opportunity to show off her lack of hand eye coordination that period. 

Her next period was biology and she drew spirals in her notebook the entire class, grateful that the teacher had gone straight into teaching rather than give the opportunity for any of the curious faces to pry into her. She headed straight to the cafeteria when class ended, hoping to avoid more awkward conversation than necessary though she did have to ask for directions. She knew a table full of inquiring minds would be waiting for her at lunch: Jess and Mike had basically guaranteed it. 

Awaiting her at a table in the center of the room were Jess and Mike and a few others. Jess introduced everyone. “This is Angela Weber, she runs the school paper. And this is Eric Yorkie, he works with Angie. Oh and this is Tyler Fisher, and Ben Langley. Tyler’s an athlete, Ben doesn't do much _. _ ” 

Everyone smiled shyly and gave a wave at the mention of their names. Ben looked indignant at Jess's introduction while Tyler stood and took a bow. He gave Bella a wicked grin and she smiled back.  _ Okay so there are other black kids here, that’s nice to know _ , she thought. It was a relief to know that she wouldn’t be relegated to the token role. She had never been in a small school before and the Bay Area was so diverse, it wasn’t something she’d really had to worry about before. 

“And here comes Lucy,” Jess said. All the boys at the table broke out into a polite golf clap as Lucy walked up to the table, curtseying dramatically. Bella liked the girl immediately. 

“Ay here’s our girl!” Tyler clapped Lucy on the back. “What’s the verdict this time?”

Lucy twisted her face into a look of mock concern, “They’re gonna call my momma this time, and they mean it!” She cracked up, “I mean if they didn’t want me to skip class they would get like, at least one hot teacher, right? How can I focus on anything but Mr. Miller’s hair piece? I mean right?” Jess rolled her eyes but the rest of the table was in a fit. “I swear to god, dudes, it like growled at me last week!” 

Bella heard Jess mumble something that sounded like “Sure, you’re failing cause the teachers are too ugly. Original,” but she couldn’t be sure. Bella wondered why Jessica would even hang out with someone she obviously didn’t respect but she assumed that they had been friends for too long for Jessica to back out now. 

Lucy fixed her gaze on Bella and held out a hand, “Lucy Lopez, damn glad to meet ya!”

“Bella Swan, the pleasure is mine.” Bella laughed deeply then, from her belly. It felt good to just be silly. Bella had had friends in California, of course, but her witless moments were always cut short by one of Reneé’s crises. Bella felt in her gut that Reneé would call any second now to pull Bella back into a somber reality. Maybe Reneé would be waiting in the principal's office for her. She tried to shake the feeling and slip into the relaxed facade she'd perfected years ago, “How’s it hanging?”

“Oh you know, hangin’ real low.” Lucy dropped her voice an octave and giggled again. 

Jess turned to Mike, “She’s probably high like, right now,” she whispered. Bella glared at them. Jess was trying to make sure Bella knew that Lucy was “bad news” which of course only made Bella like Lucy more. 

The table erupted into a low chatter after that, now that everyone was sufficiently introduced. Jess and Mike got into a heated debate about the homecoming dance, Ben and Eric and Tyler were talking about an upcoming Smash tournament, and Lucy and Angela had started in on their lunches. Bella took the opportunity to look around the cafeteria. 

It looked like any normal high school, which brought her some small comfort. There was even the classic pretty boy paradigm standing amidst a crowd of pretty girls. He looked different than the classic pretty boys Bella was used to, though. There was something off about him. Maybe it was his smile. Maybe it was the way he darted his eyes around, much too quickly. Maybe it was the way he stood, too still. 

“Hey, who’s that guy?” Bella asked Angela.

“Oh, that’s Edward Cullen, he was in our bio class, remember?” 

Bella blushed deeply, she hadn’t noticed Angela in her bio class either but she didn’t want to say that now. “No, I must not have noticed him.” He looked straight at her at the mention of his name, almost as if he could hear them from across the large room. That was surely impossible, probably just a coincidence. “So, what’s his deal? Standard jock?”

“No,” Angela swallowed her bite, “He doesn’t play any sports. He’s pretty weird actually.”

At the mention of weird, Eric joined the conversation. “Ooh, we talking about the Cullen boy? He gives off major weird vibes but no one can really say why. One of those things, you know? Anyway, he like  _ always  _ has a girl around but the word is he never does  _ anything  _ with them.”

“Not even a kiss? Come on.” Bella said incredulously. 

“He doesn’t even put his arm around them, look!” 

And it was true. Edward stood with his arms crossed as the group of girls giggled all around him. He stared at Bella once more. 

“Not that any of the girls would admit it though,” Lucy interjected, “It’s like a status thing, sleep with the new guy, you know.”

“So he’s new too?” Bella asked.

Jess inserted herself into the conversation, so as to not have her knowledge of the school and it’s happenings go outmatched. “He started here last year with his sister. And not  _ everyone  _ wants to sleep with him.” 

“Jess is just jealous that Eddie-boy turned her down last year,” Mike joked. 

“I am  _ not,”  _ Jess seethed, “And even if I were jealous, which I’m not, what is there to be jealous of? He doesn’t actually  _ date  _ anyone.” Angela and Lucy rolled their eyes. The conversation moved on quickly as everyone was eager to avoid a pointless fight with Jessica. 

“Seems like kind of an asshole anyway.” Bella looked once more at Edward. He quickly side-eyed her and then turned his attention back to the girls around him. Bella decided he gave her the creeps. Even if the rumours of his strangeness weren’t true and he was just a typical Don Juan, Bella had no interest in even remotely associating with the school playboy. She had met enough of that type and whether they were dating her mom or screwing over her friends back in San Francisco, they were all irredeemable jackasses in Bella’s mind. 

Bella began tuning out of the lunch conversations after that, lost in reflections of the friends she left behind. The bell rang, snapping her out of it. 

“What’s your next class, gurl?” Mike was trying too hard again. 

“Um, ceramics, I think.” Bella replied. 

“Nice,” Ben joined in, “Mr. Siever is a total space cadet. Easiest class in school.”

“Cool,” Bella shrugged, “Well, I’ll see you guys around I guess.”

“Wait, Bella!” Jess caught up with her, Angela trailing after. “Do you wanna come shopping after school with me and Angie? We totally need homecoming dresses!” 

Bella groaned internally. Jess talked like every sentence was punctuated with an exclamation point and Bella didn’t know if she could handle an entire afternoon filled with that much pep. She didn’t have any other plans though so she might as well.

“Uh sure, why not.” Bella brightened then, “Is Lucy coming too?” she asked expectantly. 

Jess scoffed, “As if, she never wants to do anything with  _ us _ .” 

“ _ We _ hang out all the time,” Angela corrected. Bella stifled a laugh. Jess told Bella where to meet them after school and walked away in a hurry. The rest of the group waved and headed toward their own classes, all except Lucy who had disappeared as soon as the bell rang.

Bella headed downstairs to the art room. As soon as she entered the room, a tiny girl with spiked hair greeted her. 

“Hi! You’re Bella right? I’m Alice, I think we’re gonna be great friends.” 

At first, the girl reminded Bella of Jess’s feigned dynamism but then she realized Alice was just genuinely earnest, like a young child. She had a childlike gaze to match as well; her eyes were a deep black and appeared open and eager to accept any and every new fantastic thing. She looked like she had either already seen everything there was to see or deeply wanted to. 

“Yup, that’s me,” Bella replied quickly. She didn’t know how to respond to Alice’s prediction of great friendship so she left it alone. 

“Anyway, better get to work!” Alice turned and walked into what Bella assumed was the kiln room or a craft closet and returned with a mound of half-sculpted clay- her work in progress. 

Ben’s intel on the ceramic teacher turned out to be very accurate; Mr. Siever showed Bella to the fresh clay and told her to “Just  _ create  _ today,” whatever that meant. Bella decided that it meant she could try the pottery wheel, a tool she had never used before. Reneé had signed them up for pottery classes in the past but because she couldn’t stand being bad at something, she had pulled Bella out almost immediately. 

Bella was having fun with the pottery wheel, even though she still hadn’t really figured it out by the end of class. She thought it would be nice to have a period to just mess around with mud. She probably could have made a functional bowl that day if she hadn’t spent so much of the class period sneaking glances at Alice. Something was really bugging Bella but she didn’t know what. 

There was something familiar about Alice and Bella was annoyed that she couldn’t figure it out. It wasn’t Alice’s brown spiky pixie cut or her delicate upturned nose. It wasn’t Alice’s chic-punk fashion choices or her five-foot-nothing frame. No, there was something else odd about the girl and Bella felt that she could unlock the mystery if she caught a glimpse of Alice at the right angle, like trying to find a missing pen by pretending you aren’t looking for it at all. 

Slowly Bella began to realize that it wasn’t the presence of something odd about Alice but the absence of something regular. Alice, Bella realized, had no undertones. All the other students had ruddy cheeks, bags under their eyes, a slightly warm yellow undertone, something. Alice’s skin was entirely too perfect, unblemished and completely even. It wasn’t that she was extraordinarily pale, Bella would have noticed that right away. Alice’s skin had color to it but nothing  _ underneath  _ it, as if her skin were covering a marble statue instead of the usual collection of muscles and veins.  _ But why is that so familiar? _ Bella wondered. 

The rest of the day passed slowly and without incident. Bella soon forgot exactly what had been so odd about Alice, just as she had forgotten about Edward’s stillness at lunch. Her only memory of her revelations on their strangeness was a nagging feeling, like she was trying to recapture a word that had been on the tip of her tongue, or recall a dream just after waking. She could remember that  _ something  _ had been off about them but if anyone had asked her, she wouldn’t be able to say what. 

Bella met Jessica and Angela in the parking lot. They were standing between Bella’s truck and a big black van along with Ben, Eric, and Tyler. 

“Welcome to the Swaggin’ Wagon!” Tyler exclaimed. He seemed both proud and embarrassed of his van. The inside was carpeted and had a curtain of beads separating the front seats from the back. It reminded Bella of her friend Erin’s beloved VW van back in California. 

“It’s like the Mystery Machine,” Bella joked. “I like it.” 

“Is this your rust bucket?” Eric asked Bella. 

“Hey, don’t hate on it!” Now it was Bella’s turn to feel self conscious about her vehicle’s first impressions. 

“No, no it’s cool,” Ben said, “Have you named it yet? What about… Clifford the Big Red Rust Bucket!” Angela and Eric laughed. 

“It isn’t that rusty,” Bella said defensively. “But I do like Clifford, maybe I’ll keep that.” She smiled to hide her hurt pride. 

“Are you guys ready to go?” Jessica cut in. 

“Yeah,” Angela said, “Whenever you are.” 

The girls reluctantly agreed to take Bella’s truck since both of them had carpooled with Tyler that morning. The three were forced to sit closer together than any of them were quite ready to because Bella’s ancient truck only had a bench seat. 

Bella apologized for the seating arrangement, self conscious again. Jessica complained about the lack of a proper seat belt in the middle and Angela stared thoughtfully out the window. Jessica fiddled with the radio before giving up completely and leaving it on what she referred to as a “Dad Rock Station,” but Bella didn’t mind. She liked the Rolling Stones. 

At the only fancy dress shop in Forks, Bella asked Jess and Angie about the Alice girl. 

“Oh, that’s Edward’s twin.” Angela said while trying on a puffy blue dress. It made her look like a macaron. 

“Yeah, she’s just the regular type of weird,” Jessica joked, “Like she’s really into art and weird music and stuff.”

“But they don’t even look alike,” Bella protested.

“Well they aren’t  _ identical  _ twins, obviously.” Jess rolled her eyes. “Anyway, Alice has this really weird boyfriend that picks her up for lunch sometimes. I think his name is Jerry or Josiah or something. He’s like totally boring, but I guess opposites attract or whatever.” Jessica was modeling a bright pink sateen dress that looked more like a sheet than clothing. Bella wondered privately if all the dresses here were rejects from a 90’s prom. 

“It’s Jasper,” Angie corrected. “Why aren’t you trying anything on? Aren’t you going to homecoming?” 

“Um, I don’t know, I’m not really into dancing.” Bella admitted. 

“Well that’s okay, you can just come to Eric’s after party.” Angie assured her. 

“She can  _ not _ ,” Jess objected, “Bella, you have to go to homecoming! It’s fun!”

“And she planned it,” Angie laughed. 

“I’ll think about it,” Bella promised.

“Well you only have two weeks to think about it.” Jess snorted. 

Bella knew there was no way in hell she was going to a homecoming dance. She hadn’t gone to any in San Francisco and she wasn’t going to start now. The after party sounded much more her speed. She tried on some dresses just to humor Jessica and found that all of the dresses at the store were exactly as ugly as she expected. There wasn’t a simple dress in the whole store; they were all adorned with glitter and tulle or sateen ruching. 

Bella allowed Jess to direct her back to Angela’s house and then made her own way home. Charlie had a special dinner waiting for her.

“I got us Harry Clearwater’s famous fish fry!” Charlie announced as Bella sat at the small kitchen table. “Happy first day of school, Bells.”

“Who’s Harry Clearwater?”

“Oh Bella, you remember him.” Charlie assured her. She was certain that she didn’t remember most of her past time spent in Forks but she nodded anyway. 

“How’s work going?” 

“There’ve been some animal attacks in the county. They had me help out a bit. It’s not good dinner talk, though.” Charlie kept his eyes on his plate. He ate faster than anyone Bella had ever seen before, like he was worried someone else would get to his food before him. 

They ate the rest of their meal in silence and Bella headed up to her room as soon as the dishes were cleared. She decided she would add her new friends, although she was using that term loosely, on Facebook. Mike and Jessica had already sent her friend requests which she hesitantly accepted. She tried to find Edward and Alice Cullen but they had no accounts. Even googling them yielded no results.  _ It’s 2011, who doesn’t have social media? _ she wondered but she soon brushed it off as yet another Cullen anomaly. 

The rest of Bella’s first week passed quickly. She spent every lunch period with her now default crew. Jessica tried to hang out with Bella after school again but Bella told her it was a wash day and hoped Jessica wouldn’t pry any further. Edward still glared at Bella every day at lunch. 

Bella was forced to share a lab bench with Edward in their biology class on Wednesday and he glared at her even more intensely than he had at lunch. Bella assumed he was a racist prick and tried her best to ignore him and his intense black eyes. 

On Thursday, Jacob Black called Charlie’s landline to invite Bella out to La Push that weekend. Bella was excited, she had been wondering when Jacob would call. She was looking forward to a day filled with ocean air and good company. 

On Friday, Bella had her biweekly appointment with her therapist. She was grateful that Marianne had agreed to video appointments- Bella would have hated trying to find a new therapist on such short notice. She was more open with Marianne than anyone else in her life. Not that anyone else noticed how private Bella really was. As long as she shared a story every now and again and talked about the things she liked instead of the things she felt, other people felt like they knew her. 

“I’m really, I don’t know, paranoid.” Bella explained.

“Can you elaborate on that?” Marianne’s image on the computer screen was crackling. 

“It’s like, I feel like Reneé is just gonna show up and take me away I guess. Like she’ll have some big crisis and force me to go back with her. I keep worrying that she won’t be able to remember to pay her insurance or, I don’t know, feed herself.”

“So you don’t want to leave Forks?”

“I guess not. It doesn’t really feel like home or anything but it’s nice that I don’t have to worry about Reneé anymore.”

“But you’re still worried about Reneé anyway,” Marianne noted. 

“Yeah, I guess I am.” Bella folded her hands together. “I have plans with an old friend this weekend though.”

“That’s great, Bella.” Marianne’s pixelated visage smiled at Bella. “I’m really proud of your progress. Make sure you keep journaling.”

“Sure thing.” 

“And Bella,” Marianne scolded, “please try to open up more. Remember, you aren’t burdening anyone with your honesty.”

Bella closed her computer and thought  _ Obviously I’m not a burden to you, Marianne, I  _ pay  _ you to listen.  _ She would never say this directly to Marianne but she thought it every session. 

Bella showered quickly and wrapped herself in her favorite robe. She popped a CD into her outdated stereo system but couldn’t focus on the music. She tried reading Hitchhikers but the words blurred on the page. She finally gave into her exhaustion, worn from a week of new faces and new routines, and fell fast asleep. 


	3. Edward's Surprise

Edward was not having a good week. None of his weeks were good but this one had been especially rotten. Alice had been exceptionally frustrating all weekend. She kept telling Edward “Something good is coming this week!” as if she knew what was good for him.

Everyone in his “family” was like that. They all acted like they knew what would be best for him. He may have been 17 but he wasn’t a child- after all, he had been 17 since 1918. It was infuriating. Esme, his “mother,” was especially difficult for Edward to deal with. She doted on him and rarely hid her pitying thoughts from him. Everyone else made an effort to shield their true thoughts, more or less, from Edward. 

Sometimes Rosalie would direct nasty thoughts at him, so that she could berate him without any retaliation from Esme and Carlisle. Jasper could control his feelings so well that often Edward could only pick up the mental equivalent of elevator music from Jasper’s mind. Emmett’s thoughts were usually obnoxiously cheerful. He loved trying to prank Edward and Alice but they were the only two Cullens who were thoroughly unprankable so it was more pathetic than annoying. Emmett never gave up though, and he never tried very hard to block his thoughts from Edward.

Carlisle and Alice were the best at concealing their minds from Edward’s unfortunate gift. Sometimes Edward could pick up subtle waves of regret from Carlisle or hope and fear from Alice. Usually though, Carlisle’s mind was as clear as a lake and Alice would run loud music through her mind to keep her thoughts and visions hidden. 

It was a courtesy to Edward, in their household, to shield one’s thoughts. It wasn’t a perfect peace but their house was the only place in the world that Edward could have company and silence simultaneously. Everywhere else, Edward was bombarded by the internal monologues and abstract thoughts of strangers. 

High school was Edward’s personal hell. He enrolled as a favor to the rest of the Cullens, so that they might have the chance to feel normal, human, again. He could somewhat understand the appeal. Rosalie got to teach children sometimes, or work in hospitals with Carlisle. Emmett could keep busy with work. Right now he was working as a logger the next town over. Jasper could stay in college indefinitely, collecting degrees in anything that caught his interest. Alice and Esme could have friends. 

Edward had been listening in, against his will, on humans for almost a century. He was never surprised by them. He didn’t fully understand why Alice loved going to movies with humans, why Esme loved hosting garden parties, why Rosalie loved teaching their children. Humans all seemed so  _ boring  _ to Edward. 

If he was completely honest with himself, which he rarely was, Edward could admit that he envied humans more than anything. He would never grow, never age, never die. He could never have a family or a lifelong career. He would never have peace from the daily assault of unspoken thoughts of others. 

After Edward had learned that human brains are fully developed in their 20’s, he had asked Carlisle if his brain would be stuck as it was for the rest of his infinite life. Carlisle was hesitant to tell the truth but Edward was persistent and Carlisle eventually relented. Vampires, he admitted, are halted at whatever stage of development they are when turned. While the brain retains plasticity to some extent- vampires can learn new things, of course- certain structures within the brain, like the amygdala and hippocampus, will not continue to mature through a vampire’s life. If a toddler were turned, Carlisle elaborated, that child would never learn fine motor skills or develop verbally. They would be an infinite child.

“So I’ll be seventeen forever?” Edward had asked.

“Yes.” Carlisle admitted. “But you can adapt. Look at how far Rose has come, how much she has  _ overcome _ . You can learn, too.”

Edward never tried to adapt. He felt content with his bitter outlook, comforted by the familiarity of the pain. He carried on as he was, unsurprised and unsatisfied. He had taken to a rather unsettling hobby during the 50’s that he continued into the 2000’s. If he couldn’t be surprised by humans, he could use his gift to surprise them. He took great joy in sweeping human girls off their feet, courting them, and then abruptly abandoning them before they could even kiss. 

He enjoyed the attention, and hearing the envy of human boys. He kept his human girls at arms length but they never seemed to care. They just loved feeling loved by a pretty boy. And Edward knew he was handsome, he could see himself through the eyes of others. His face was perfectly symmetrical, his skin unmarred, unblemished. He could adapt to the popular style and language. He could turn into whoever he needed to be to drive the girls crazy.

Rosalie and Alice hated Edward’s “hobby,” of course. It was dehumanizing and objectifying, they protested. Even Edward sometimes disgusted himself. He wanted to stop at times but the negative reactions of the other Cullens only ever encouraged him. He loved feeling absolutely vile. 

Early one Monday morning, Alice sprinted into Edward’s room, slamming his door wide open. “It’s today!” she sang. 

“The week you wouldn’t shut up about?” Edward said flatly. 

Emmett, too, burst into Edward’s room and picked up Alice and spun her around as if she were light as a feather. “It’s today!” He joined in, excited to feel included in Alice’s joy.

“What’s today?” Esme joined Emmett and Alice in Edward’s doorway.

“Hello? This is still my room, right?” Edward’s rhetorical question went unanswered.

“The most important week in Edward’s life!” Alice squealed.

Emmett and Alice jumped up and down, though Emmett was more delighted by annoying Edward than he was by whatever mysterious fortune was awaiting Edward at school. 

“Alice, will you ever tell me anything useful?” Edward growled, pulling an old knit sweater over his head.

“You know I can’t, Edward.” Alice would rarely share her visions with the rest of the family unless they were immediately pertinent warnings. She treated her visions of the future as a child treats a birthday wish, if she shared the spoilers, they might not come true. She also didn’t want to risk creating any paradoxes though any time she tried to explain this to Edward, he couldn’t understand her. Maybe she had read too much science fiction. 

Edward continued to get ready for the day, trying his best to ignore Esme, Emmett, and Alice’s persistent presence in his room. As he was fixing his hair, Rosalie and Jasper wandered into his room as well, looking for Emmett and Alice.

“Don’t we have a fucking living room?” Edward shouted.

“Edward! Language.” Esme scolded. Edward rolled his eyes. He loved Esme, he really did, but she wasn’t his mother and he thought she never would be. His real mother had died in the plague that should have taken his life as well. At the time, he had been grateful to Carlisle for saving him from death but he now felt that Carlisle’s rescue was more damning than heroic. At least death was final. Edward’s purgatory was endless.

He drove Alice to Forks High in his beloved sleek Audi. Carlisle didn’t want any of them driving flashy cars but Edward had stolen this one and that made it his. As he got closer to the school, he slipped into his womanizing facade. He donned a pair of reflective wayfarers and a cocky smirk. Alice groaned at him. 

Edward walked into school, expecting Alice’s Special Surprise to jump out at him, but the day progressed as usual. He flirted with the girls in his English class and then the girls in his Calculus class. He spent his free period in the parking lot, enjoying the break from the din of teenaged ruminations. He spotted a rusted red Chevy in the lot that he had never seen before.  _ Maybe that geriatric sloth is my surprise _ , he joked to himself. 

The bell rang and he headed into his biology class. There was a new girl at the front of the room, drawing idly in her notebook. She was beautiful. Her skin was dark and clear and her hair was a mass of thick long curls with random strands of brassy blonde throughout. She had high pink cheeks and large brown eyes. She sat folded in on herself, like she didn’t want attention, like she was already tired of being the new girl.  _ Are you my surprise? _ he wondered.

Edward took his seat and stared at the back of the girl’s head, trying to single out her train of thought. He could hear nothing and assumed she was in some sort of meditative state. He gave up, bored already, and tried to tune out for the rest of class. He headed to lunch in the usual crowd and heard the girl speak for the first time. 

“Which way is the cafeteria?” she asked a skinny boy with a horrible mind. The boy’s thoughts were a snarl of insecurity and hatred, Edward noticed, but he still couldn’t make out the girl’s mind. Her voice was just slightly gravelly, like an old jazz singer’s, and Edward thought it was at odds with her sweet round face. 

He walked along with the rest of the crowd to the cafeteria. The sounds of the lunchroom were unbearable for Edward yet almost every day he forced himself to bear it as a form of self flagellation. Every teenager’s mind was its own unique jumble of insecurity, narcissism, self-loathing, anxiety, and lust and Edward was conscious of every individual one. 

In the past, Edward had had conversations with humans who considered themselves misanthropic. They hated the things people did, sure, but what they most often complained about were the noises people made. Chewing, smacking, talking too much, talking too quietly- every self-declared misanthrope Edward had ever met always seemed to hate human noises above all else. Every time Edward met a misanthrope he really wanted to say “Try hearing the shit they don’t say!” 

Edward grabbed an apple from the buffet, winking at a lunch lady as he passed. He knew what every school employee thought of him, half of them thought he was “cute,” charming, harmless, and half thought he was the devil incarnate. This particular lunch lady, Gladys, felt younger around Edward, charmed by him, and so she tolerated the occasional thievery. Mabel, who worked for Gladys every other Tuesday, thought Edward was eroding good Christian Values merely by existing. And she didn’t even know what he really was: he was just that good at being despicable. 

Edward smiled to himself and headed to his usual spot in the cafeteria, to the customary throng of the girls that would do anything for his attention. They all bored him. He knew, somewhere deep within himself, that he was unfair. He knew that he was callous and unkind, and yet, how dull high school would be if he just sat silently through it! Edward defended his actions to himself by reminding himself that these girls didn’t like him, they didn’t even know him. They were just shallowly interested in whatever facade he put forth. They swooned over his features, his messy hair, his broad shoulders. None of them knew him, none of them even bothered. 

This of course, wasn’t entirely true. Many of the girls over the years had tried to get to know Edward and all had failed. But ignoring this fact made it easier for Edward to continue on with his little heartbreaking game. 

He smiled vapidly at the girls around his table and tried to tune out the din of the cafeteria until he heard his name, clear as a bell, from across the room. 

“....pretty weird,” the Angela girl was describing him to the new girl. What was her name? He searched Angela’s kind mind.  _ Bella Swan, hm.  _

Bella didn’t speak much as her tablemates gossiped about Edward. Jessica Stanley, who Edward held in low regard, was thinking profane thoughts about Edward and everyone else at the table for making fun of her little crush. Jessica’s mind was incredibly black and white: anyone who wasn’t with her was against her. Edward avoided her thoughts like the plague. 

Bella spoke then, in her anomalously raspy voice: “Seems like kind of an asshole.” She looked at Edward. Edward looked back. He glowered at her. Edward knew he was vile but what gave this girl the right to say so? He turned back to the girls around him, who were insufferable for an entirely different reason than the new girl, and joined them in laughing. He decided he would ignore the new girl, she could hate him all she wanted, what did he care? 

It wasn’t until the next day that Edward overcame his annoyance at Bella enough to realize that he still could not hear her thoughts. Surely she must have had a thought around him? He stared at her in their shared class, trying to hear something, anything. She was taking notes, she must be thinking something. He thought back to Monday, when he heard her ask for directions. She must have had a thought then, right? Why couldn’t he  _ hear  _ her? 

She became his daily obsession. Every day in fourth period and every day at lunch, Edward would focus intently on Bella, as if he could laser his way into her mind. She became all that he thought of- the mystery he couldn’t crack. By the end of the week, when Edward still hadn’t heard even the faintest hint of a thought from Bella’s mind, he decided he would just have to get to know her the old fashioned way. Not that he wanted to know her, he assured himself, he just wanted to understand why he couldn’t crack her. Edward decided that next week he would talk to the girl. 


	4. Jacob's Perfect Day

Jacob woke to his usual 5:30 alarm. He had had to wake up before Billy for so long that he barely needed the alarm any more. Still, he was a teenager so the safety of the alarm didn’t hurt. He showered quickly and got breakfast together before heading into Billy’s room to help him out of bed. 

“Bella’s coming today, dad!” Jacob said cheerfully. He carefully helped Billy slide into his wheelchair and bent down to lace his slippers. 

“Alright! A first date!” 

Jacob blushed, “Not a date, dad, we’re just friends.” Jacob stood behind Billy to hide his embarrassment. He worried that Billy had already told the whole tribe about his “girlfriend.” 

“Ah, anyway. What’s for breakfast?”

Jacob helped Billy guide his chair through the narrow hallway and saw Quil standing in front of the stove. He had eaten half the eggs right out of the pan.

“Quil! What the hell? I just made those, man!” 

“Sorry, dude. Growth spurt!” Quil grinned, a tiny piece of egg was stuck to his chin. 

“You can make more, son, relax.” Billy picked up the mail Jacob had set out for him.

Quil Ateara was Jake’s oldest friend and often helped himself to everything in Jake’s house, especially the fridge. 

Jacob rolled his eyes and set to work making a fresh breakfast while Quil and Billy joked at the kitchen table. Though Jacob feigned annoyance with Quil often, he was truthfully thankful for his friend’s daily presence. He made Billy happy and he made their empty house feel full again. 

It had just been Billy and Jake for the past three years, ever since his mom left without a trace. Billy didn’t talk about her anymore, he could hardly handle hearing her name. Jacob assumed that she had felt like a big fish in a small pond, her dreams too grandiose to survive in their forced isolation. Jacob didn’t blame her. He too resented how much land had been stolen from his people, how much of their culture had been lost to violence and time. But he loved his father, loved his tribe, more than anything else in the world. He didn’t understand why his mother hadn’t seen what he could: that it was better to stay with the ones you love and fight for a better world than it was to flee.

Jacob refocused his mind on the things he was grateful for. He smiled at Quil and Billy as he brought the skillet to the table. Today would be a great day.

Jacob spent the rest of his morning with Quil and Embry. The Three Musketeers, they called themselves. Billy said they were more like the Three Stooges. They passed their days slowly, wishing they were older, not realizing exactly how much they’d miss this when they were. Every weekend was some variation of the same thing. The boys would race their bikes to their old fort by the cliffs and argue about how to spend the day. These arguments would devolve into further arguments about comic books or whichever show they had all most recently watched together. 

Then the boys would bike all along the trails surrounding the reservation. Sometimes they would fish, sometimes they venture to a gas station for snacks and sodas, always they would laugh. Exuberantly youthful, joyously alive. Today they fought about which issue of Sandman best encapsulated the “vibe” of the series before biking to Harry Clearwater’s for lunch. Harry and Sue always made great spreads on Saturdays for Billy and Jacob which meant that they had to make enough for Quil and Embry, too. 

Seth Clearwater raced up to them as soon as he heard the sounds of Embry’s rusted bike chains. Seth was Harry and Sue’s only son and Leah’s little brother. The Clearwater’s had become Jake’s second family after his mother left and that made Seth his little brother too, in Jake’s eyes. Like any little brother, Seth was annoying but well meaning. He always wanted to tag along with Jake, Quil, and Embry and sometimes they’d humor him but usually they stuck to their sacred weekend routines. 

Leah, too, had become like a sister to Jacob. She greeted him that day as any big sister would, “So, Jake, Billy says your  _ girlfriend  _ is visiting us today?”

Jacob reddened, “She isn’t my  _ girlfriend _ . It’s Bella, you guys remember her!”

Quil and Embry cracked up and raised their voices to a mock falsetto, “Ooh, your girlfriend? Oh, Bella!” 

“Shut up, guys!” Jake lightly punched them each on the arm. “She used to come here like all the time.” 

Sue smiled knowingly and said, “Girlfriend or not, I’d love to meet her.” Jacob blushed deeply. He cursed Leah under his breath as he walked into the small kitchen to help with the food. 

It was unseasonably warm so they ate at the low picnic table in front of the Clearwater’s house. Harry helped Billy to the table while Sue, Leah, Seth, and Jacob brought out the huge meal. 

Leah and Quil continued to riff on Jake’s new “girlfriend” and Seth, eager to prove himself, jumped to Jacob’s defense. 

“Well at least Jacob  _ has  _ a girlfriend!”

“Seth! She’s not my girlfriend.” Jacob insisted.

“Yeah, Leah how come  _ you  _ never have a boyfriend?” Embry joked. 

It was Leah’s turn to blush. The kids continued to tear into one another playfully about the girlfriends they had and didn’t have. They spoke over each other until the volume of their jests started to drown out Harry, Billy, and Sue’s conversation.

Billy spoke up, “Hey hey, stop clowning guys! We’re trying to eat!”

The kid’s united then in making fun of Billy’s persistent misuse of slang but the volume remained the same. Harry and Sue rolled their eyes but Jacob knew that they treasured these moments. When Leah and Seth grew up and moved out, they would miss the liveliness of these Saturday lunches, the same way Jacob missed dinners with his mother and father.

Jacob wasn’t like a lot of the boys his age, he had a maturity about the ebbs and flows of life that most people take decades to develop. After his mother left, he was determined to hold onto the little bright moments of his days. He would always point them out to himself as they passed and he would tell himself  _ You’re going to miss this one day so make sure you enjoy it now _ . Jacob felt that if he did this, if he soaked in all the good moments before they had gone, he could make them last forever. And with that in mind, Jake looked around the picnic table, at the laughing faces of the people he loved most in this world, and he held the moment close. 

Bella pulled up in Billy’s old truck as they were clearing the table. Quil and Embry were wrestling in the drive and rolled out of the way to make room for Bella. 

Jacob couldn’t help himself, he knew Leah and the others would mock him for it but he ran to Bella before she could even step out of the old truck and embraced her, nearly knocking her to the ground. He worried at first that he had been too rash, maybe she was only visiting as a favor to Charlie? But she held him back, as tightly as he held her. 

She pulled away but still held onto his arms, “Hey, you!” Her smile glowed in the pale sun. 

Quil and Embry rushed up to them, cutting Jacob’s precious moment short. “Hey, hi, are you gonna introduce us?” They spoke at once, almost in unison. 

“Right,” Jacob reluctantly let go of Bella, “This is Quil and Embry.”

“We’re his  _ very  _ best friends,” Embry started.

“And he’s told us  _ so  _ much about you!” Quil finished. 

“Oh,” Bella looked away awkwardly, like she was unsure of what to say to that. 

“I really didn’t tell them anything.” Jacob muttered to her. 

“I’m Leah, this is Seth.” Leah positioned herself between Bella and the boys protectively. Jacob felt annoyed at this, Bella wasn’t the kind of person anyone needed protecting from. 

“Oh, hi. I’m Bella,” Bella held out her hand but Leah only looked at it. 

“Bella! Hey there, you remember Harry and Sue.” Billy maneuvered his chair over the grassy drive. Harry and Sue followed. 

“Harry Clearwater’s famous fish fry!” Bella exclaimed. “Of course I remember you.” Bella seemed easier around the parents than she did the kids her own age. Well, Jacob and his friends were younger than Bella, but barely, and Leah was a few years older. 

“How is that old thing treating you, lady?” Billy asked, eyeing the truck.

“Oh, I love it!” Bella gushed, “It’s exactly what I needed.”

Billy grinned at Sue, “I told you I was hip with the kids!”

“Uh huh sure,” Sue placed a friendly hand on Billy’s shoulder, “Come on, old man, let’s get inside.”

“Good to see you again Bella. You know where to find us if you need anything.” Harry shook Bella’s hand and gave her a wink before following Sue and Billy back into the house. 

“Well, we should give you some private time with your girlfriend,” Quil joked.

“See ya!” Embry and Quil raced towards their bikes. 

Seth ran after them, “Hey guys! Come on, wait up!” 

“I’ll be seeing you around, then, Bella.” Leah smiled faintly, the kind of smile that Jacob knew was meant to warn, intimidate.

Bella waved to Leah, ignorant of the implication behind her smile, and laughed at little Seth chasing after Quil and Embry’s bikes on foot. “He’s a sweetie,” she said, nodding at Seth. 

“Oh, yeah, I mean he’s kind of like my kid brother. Unofficially.” Jacob explained. 

“How old is he?” Seth was gangly, tall for his age, so it was easy to forget just how young he was sometimes.

“He just turned 13. But he’s a year ahead of everyone his own age in school so he mostly tries to hang with us.” 

“And Quil and Embry are 16, too?” Bella asked.

Jacob smiled broadly, “Quil’s still fifteen, he has a late birthday.” Jacob and Embry loved to refer to Quil as “the baby.” Quil, of course, hated this moniker. 

Bella stared at the tree line that the three boys had just vanished through, a faint smile played across her lips. Jacob imagined that she was seizing the moment as he had earlier that afternoon. They stood in companionable silence for a few more beats before Bella asked “What do you wanna do today?”

Jacob wanted to answer with  _ Everything, I want to do everything with you, Bella _ , but instead he said “We could check out the beach?”

“Oh neat, I haven’t been to a cold beach in ages!”

“This is cold?” Jacob was shocked, “It’s like 60 degrees!”

“Cold for me,” Bella looked at her boots, “It doesn’t really get this cold in the Bay until November, except late at night.” 

“Warm for us,” Jacob said. “Are you really cold?”

Bella nodded. “It’s a bit nippy,” she said in a poor British accent. 

Jacob laughed and slung his arm around her shoulders, “I think we can fix that.” He led her back to his house and took her to the trunk of blankets that served as a coffee table. He unlatched the trunk and revealed a trove of aged woven blankets. “Go on, pick one.”

“Wow, these are beautiful Jake.” Bella ran her fingers delicately over the fabrics in the trunk. “I won’t be like, destroying a family heirloom if I take one, right?” She joked.

“Nah, unless you’re planning on setting one on fire.” Jacob laughed.

“Where did these all come from? They look old.”

“My grandmother made most of them, I think.” Jacob paused, “My mom made a couple, too.”

Bella picked out the tan blanket with rust colored patterns. It was the newest one, the one his mother had woven as a teenager when she was first learning the skill. Jacob felt a pang at the memory of his mother’s weaving but reminded himself to focus on the good. Bella was here, with him, and they had a whole day ahead of them. 

They walked arm in arm along the beach. Jacob waited for Bella to speak but she seemed content to walk in companionable silence. He didn’t know how to start a conversation with her. It was as if their muscle memory had quickly fallen back into their easy friendship but Jacob’s mind hadn’t caught up yet. What did they used to talk about? Could he still talk to her about ghost stories and super heroes? Finally he broke the silence. 

“So, how has life been treating you?” It wasn’t terrible as far as ice breakers go.

Bella shrugged, “Pretty well. I like it here so far. Charlie still can’t cook for shit.” They shared a laugh. 

“But seriously, is school good? What have you been doing?” Jacob wanted to know everything he had missed in the years since they’d last seen each other but he also didn’t want to come on too strong. Part of him felt that Bella would like him more if he were cool and aloof. He decided to meet himself in the middle of sincerity and indifference. 

“School is, sort of the same all over.” Bella laughed without feeling. “Forks is a lot smaller than I’m used to, it’s a little weird. I like some of the people a lot. There’s this girl Lucy, you’d like her, she’s really goofy.”

Jacob didn’t want to hear about other girls he might like. “Gone on any good ghost hunts lately?” It was an awkward non sequitur but he hoped Bella would remember their childhood days spent searching for imaginary ghosts in graveyards and vacant houses. 

Bella brightened as the memories returned to her, “Oh wow! I can’t believe I forgot about those.” She laughed again then, genuine and full. “You know, I don’t think we ever found a real ghost. We were pretty shitty ghost chasers.”

Jacob nudged Bella with his shoulder, “Hey we did find that weird unmarked grave, that was pretty close!” 

“Do you still believe in all that stuff, Jake?” She stumbled then on a branch of driftwood. 

Jacob caught her arm, “Whoa there, watch those feet!” He hadn’t noticed until then but there was something off about the way Bella carried herself. She walked like she didn’t really belong in her own body. He made sure she was stable before he answered her, “I don’t know if I really believed in it to begin with. To be honest, I sort of only went along with it because it was fun hanging out with you.” He turned his face to the ocean so Bella wouldn’t notice him blushing. 

“Maybe we should get back into it,” Bella said playfully. Jacob thought she was just being kind. He had hoped she would say  _ We don’t need ghosts to hang out, Jake _ , but maybe she thought they did. 

“Yeah, maybe,” he struggled to hide the tinge of disappointment from his voice. 

“Or,” she walked ahead of him and faced him, “we can just hang out?”

Jacob grinned. “Well,  _ maybe  _ I can find some new leads,” he joked. “You know, my tribe has a lot of legends. We don’t even have to stick to ghosts. Maybe we can try to find a trickster or two.”

Bella laughed again, “I love it, very supernatural! Maybe we could get the trickster to turn us into tigers. Or ducks! I’ve always been jealous of ducks.”

“Ducks? Bella, really?” 

“Sure, they get to swim  _ and  _ fly. I always felt like they were hogging all the good stuff.”

Jacob laughed and wrapped his arm around Bella’s shoulders again as they continued their walk. Their conversation flowed easily now and Jacob listened eagerly as Bella talked about her favorite books and movies. She loved science fiction and Jimmy Stewart. She thought Mark Twain was alright but Toni Morrison was truly the Great American Novelist. As she talked, Jacob noticed that she never once mentioned herself directly.

She didn’t talk about her mother or how it felt to be living in Forks again. She shared a few stories about her friends in San Francisco but they were the sort of stories that could have happened to anyone. She didn’t bring up any of her problems, past or present, or make any mention of her fears or aspirations. Still, Jacob thought, people reveal a lot about themselves even when they don’t mean to. 

He noticed that Bella cared deeply about the people in her life. She was the problem solver in all of her relationships. She told Jacob that she had to stop Charlie from nearly burning the house down last week when he tried using the broiler on the oven. She described helping her new friends at Forks high pick out homecoming dresses. It seemed that, whatever people needed her for, she was there. This became increasingly obvious as she began to steer the conversation towards Jacob. 

“So, where’s your mom?” she asked innocently.

“She uh, well she left a few years ago now.” he admitted.

“Oh, Jake, I’m so sorry. Do you want to talk about it? Has it been hard?” She was almost eager to be an open shoulder for others. 

“Thanks, Bella, but it’s fine. Just don’t ask Billy, please?” Jacob thought that it would be easy to open up to Bella about this but he had never really talked to anyone, even Quil or Embry, about his mother’s absence and he didn’t want to start now. He also had hoped that he could be different for Bella than the others in her life. He didn’t want to be yet another friend whose problems she had to solve. 

“Yeah, of course.” She rubbed Jacob’s back in comforting circles, already slipping into the caretaker role. Jacob stopped her by linking his arm back through hers. He changed the conversation back to something light. 

They had walked idly up and down the shore for about two hours when Quil and Embry ran up to them, Seth trailing after. 

“Hey dudes!” Embry called out, short of breath. He stopped in front of Bella and Jacob and bent over to catch his breath.

“Bonfire tonight?” Quil asked. He slapped Embry on the back, as if he were mocking Embry for being out of shape even though Quil was panting too. Seth caught up to them as well but his breathing was even; he may not have been able to run as quickly as the older boys but he still had the endurance and seemingly limitless energy of a child. 

“That sounds really fun,” Bella smiled at Jake, as if she was waiting for his answer before committing. 

Jake looked back at her, “I’m in if you are.” 

“But we need to eat first.” Bella added.

“She speaks my language!” Quil patted Bella on the back and the five of them walked back to the houses. 

Dinner unfolded much like their lunch: too many helping hands in the small kitchen, playful teasing, energetic debates. Jacob watched Bella working with Sue and Harry in the kitchen as Quil, Embry, and Seth shouted over one another in the living room. Bella looked right at home. As they ate, Bella sat between Billy and Jake, preferring to join in on the adults’ conversation. Jacob didn’t say much, he was soaking in this moment too. He wanted to live in it.

After dinner, Bella and Jake helped Harry clean while the boys raced each other back toFirst Beach. By the time Bella and Jake joined them, some of the older kids in the tribe had joined the fire as well. Quil was disappointed that their older friend, Paul Lahote, had started the fire before he could help. Paul was 18 which, in the boys’ minds, made him practically an elder. 

Bella was still wrapped in Jacob’s blanket, laughing along with his friends, his family, joining in on the conversation. Jacob noticed Leah standing a few feet away from the crowd by the fire. 

He approached her, “Hey, you weren’t at dinner.”

“Ah, good eyes, detective.” Leah deadpanned. 

Jake rolled his eyes, “Where were you?”

“On the phone.” Leah was glaring over at Bella. 

“Do you have a problem with her or something?”

Leah scoffed, “I think you’re the one with the problem, loverboy.”

“Yeah? What’s that supposed to mean?”

Leah placed a hand on his shoulder, “Just, look out for yourself first, okay?” Jacob watched as Leah walked slowly back to her house. He didn’t know what Leah’s problem was but his teenage mind excused it as PMS. He had heard people talk about it on TV. It seemed like some kind of syndrome that made women act meaner than usual; if that was the case, Jake thought, Leah definitely had it. Leah, of course, did not have PMS and was only doing what older sisters do: looking out for her little brother.

Jacob rejoined the group and instantly got involved in Quil and Embry’s current debate over which of them was too cowardly to run into the frigid ocean water.

“Dude, you definitely won’t go! You’re too chicken!”

“No way, man, you’re chicken! I bet if I went in right now, you wouldn’t even follow me.”

“Neither of you are going in right now, the water’s freezing!” Jacob tried to reason with them. Quil took this as a challenge and bolted up, racing towards the ocean’s edge. He pulled off his muddy sneakers and his T-shirt as he ran. 

“I can’t believe he’s really gonna do it!” Seth exclaimed.

“He’s really going swimming right  _ now _ ?” Bella looked horrified. She tightened the blanket around her as if even thinking about the chilly waves had made her colder.

“No way,” Embry shook his head. He sprinted after Quil, tackling him into the shallow shoreline. Their voices cracked as they screamed gleefully. 

Jacob couldn’t believe his friends sometimes. Maybe Billy was right, they were more Stooges than Musketeers. He shook his head, “I guess we better wrap this up so I can make sure those two dingbats don’t get hypothermia.” 

Bella laughed, “I should be getting home anyway. Charlie will be wondering where I am.” She hugged Jacob tightly, “Thank you for a perfect day, Jake.”

Jacob squeezed her back before running to get Quil and Embry. 

When he got back home, Billy was waiting up for him. 

“How was your day with Bella, son?”

“Great, dad. I’m really glad she’s back.” Jacob kicked off his shoes and helped Billy navigate his chair back through the narrow hallway.

Billy sighed contentedly, “Yeah, son, me too.” 


	5. Bella Wins the Onion

Bella was trying to write a letter to her best friend. Tessa had been like a sister to Bella since the day they met, the kind of instantaneous friendship only small children seem to forge. Bella hadn’t ever tried to open up to Tessa but she had never needed to either. Tessa was intuitive and attentive with Bella. She knew when Reneé had been especially cruel and knew when Bella needed to get away. Bella could never hide from Tessa.

Tessa had been the one to suggest therapy for Bella. She had seen one of Bella and Reneé’s fights up close and would not stop insisting on it until Bella had made her first appointment. Sometimes it had felt like Tessa was the only person in Bella’s life who really knew her. And Bella loved her for it.

She tried describing her time in Forks so far. Writing, her therapist had told her, made it easier to open up. There wasn’t the painful awkwardness of watching someone’s face as they listened in earnest. Bella couldn’t stand feeling watched, it only compounded her hesitancy to unfurl. And so Bella wrote. She described the emptiness of Charlie’s house, how sad and small it had seemed. She wrote that she felt it was her job, as a good daughter, to bring life back into the four walls, to make Charlie happy again. She wrote about Jessica and Lucy and how she had felt that first week like a child’s play thing, torn between two old friends. She wrote about Jacob and how her day with him had felt like the emotional equivalent of his warm blanket, comfortable and familiar. 

She tore up her letter. Marianne was wrong about one thing- writing did not make it easier to share. 

Bella grabbed herself a seltzer and returned to her writing attempt.  _ My dearest Tessa _ , she started. She crossed it out.  _ Dear Tess _ , she tore the page from her lined notebook. She took a deep breath.  _ Don’t overthink it _ , she told herself. She began again. 

_ Hey Tessa, long time no see, right? I already miss you a lot. There isn’t even a Waffle House in this small town. You would hate it here. It rains almost every day and when it doesn’t rain it’s cloudy. Charlie kept my old room the same. It was so weird seeing posters for shit I thought was cool when I was 12. I made a new friend at school, Lucy. You’d like her. She’s totally jealous that I used to live in San Francisco, she’s really into the glory days of California, like Sunset Strip and Haight-Ashbury. I had to tell her that Haight-Ashbury sucks now. Oh and Charlie got me a truck. You would laugh at it if you saw it, it’s huge and old. I named it Clifford. How is home? The girls here keep trying to convince me to go to homecoming, I know you would think it was funny if I went. Maybe I will go, just as a joke for you. I miss you, write soon. Bells.  _

Bella thought that would have to be good enough and sealed the letter up before she could regret it. She left out Jacob but maybe she had wanted to keep yesterday a private, sunny memory just for herself. She spent the rest of the night doing her homework. She had thought about working in the kitchen so Charlie could have some company, but he worked late most nights so she stayed at her desk. She went to bed early that night, still exhausted from her long afternoon with Jake the day before. 

Charlie woke Bella up before her alarm. For the first time, she didn’t overthink her day before it could happen. Maybe Jacob’s easy approach to his days had rubbed off on her. She was starting to settle into her routine, into her life here. The initial shock of the move had worn off and Bella was now almost giddy about adapting. Reneé still hadn’t called to check in and Bella was almost over the feeling of worry that had plagued her last week. 

She knew when she got to school she would have friends waiting for her and even though they didn’t really feel like  _ her  _ friends yet, they were all good company. She felt safe in the certainty of her upcoming week and she pulled up to the high school with an easy smile on her face. 

Bella spent the minutes before the first bell standing around Tyler’s van with the rest of the group. Ben and Lucy were talking passionately about the coding for something or other but Bella couldn’t follow their conversation. Instead, she listened to Angela and Eric talk about the upcoming features for the school paper. 

“It’s dead, Ange, we need something like.. WOW, you know?” Eric was waving his hands around as he spoke. 

“Does anything ‘wow’ ever happen here?” Bella asked. 

Eric narrowed his eyes while Angela laughed lightly. “No, not really,” she admitted.

“If there isn’t a story, we gotta  _ make  _ a story. First rule of journalism, look it up.” 

“I don’t think that’s right, bro,” Tyler said. 

The bell chimed, cutting off what Bella was sure would be an impassioned plea from Eric for juicer news. The group parted ways and Bella day dreamed her way through her first two classes. Unfortunately, her gym teacher had decided that Bella’s grace period was over and she was forced to join a volleyball team in her third period. 

She pleaded with Mrs. Dover for leniency but ultimately resigned herself to her assured embarrassment. Jessica, who played volleyball on the school’s team, took pity on Bella and had her stand where she was sure Bella wouldn’t have to lay a finger on the ball. Somehow, within the first minute of the mock game, the other team spiked the ball right toward Bella. Her instinct took over and she punched at the ball. 

At first, she felt a swell of pride upon making contact. Then she realized she had thrusted the ball hard to her left, directly in Mike’s face.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry! I tried to tell her I can’t play!” Bella rushed to Mike’s side.

“It happens,” Mike spoke through his hand which was covering his now profusely bleeding nose. “At least I get to leave class early!” His voice was made nasally by the bleeding. 

Mike excused himself to the nurse and Bella sat out for the rest of class. Now that she had proven herself a danger to others, Mrs. Dover was more understanding of Bella’s reluctance to participate. 

Bella was still overwhelmed by her feelings of shame over what was already being referred to as The Volleyball Incident as she headed into Mr. Molina’s biology class. She didn’t even realize that she was sitting next to Edward Cullen until Mr. Molina announced the day’s assignment.

“Today, class, you will be locked in a fierce battle for the glory of the Golden Onion!” He  was the kind of teacher that tried entirely too hard to make hormonal 17 year olds interested in the hard sciences. The class groaned. “On each lab bench, you’ll find a set of unlabeled slides. The first team to correctly label the phase of mitosis on each slide will win the gold!” 

Bella looked over to see Edward’s dark eyes staring into her own.

He forced a smile, “I’m sorry I didn’t introduce myself last week, I’m Edward Cullen.”

“Bella Swan,” she said flatly, “And I know who you are.”

“Oh I see, because your little friends told you about me you think you know me?” Edward spoke quietly, barely above a whisper. It was as if he was encouraging Bella to lean in to him.

Bella flushed slightly, embarrassed that she had reacted so caustically to Edward’s introduction. Part of her agreed with him that it was unfair to make assumptions about another person based solely on first impressions but most of her resented the way Edward had said “little friends” so she maintained her abrasive front. 

“My  _ friends  _ did tell me about you,” she started, “but I figured out your type on my own and I know I don’t like it.” 

“And what type is that?” Edward pulled his face away from the microscope. “And it’s anaphase.”

“I know it’s anaphase.” Bella huffed.

“You knew that without looking? I’m impressed.” Edward smirked.

Bella blushed again. She was being stubborn but she felt too committed to back out now. Something about the way Edward was looking at her, like she was the only person in the room, made her wish she could start the whole conversation over. She scolded herself, she knew better than to swoon under the gaze of the resident pretty boy. 

“I’m still curious,” Edward began again in that same low and inviting tone, “what type am I, Bella?”

“I’ve seen you at lunch,” Bella looked into the microscope to avoid Edward’s eyes, “I’ve seen the way you flirt with everyone, even the lunch ladies.”

Edward laughed then and a chill ran down Bella’s spine. “You think  _ that’s  _ flirting?” 

“It’s metaphase.” Bella struggled to slide the heavy microscope toward him. “And yeah, what would you call it?”

Edward examined the next slide and then looked up. He paused thoughtfully before saying, “I’d call it being friendly.” He smiled crookedly and Bella reminded herself that he was only trying to endear himself to her. Whatever chemistry she felt now was just an illusion, a byproduct of her internalized romanticism and Edward’s natural magnetism. “This one is telophase,” he added.

Bella, eager to be done with this conversation, raised her hand and called out, “Mr. Molina, we’re done.”

“So you are, well done! The winners of the Golden Onion, everyone!” Mr. Molina tried to elicit an applause with no effect. “As winners of the challenge you get to leave early!”

The students groaned. Someone called out from the back row “You didn’t tell us we’d get to leave!” Bella hurried out of the room with Edward trailing after as Mr. Molina tried to get the class back on track. 

Edward caught up with Bella at her locker. “This is yours, I believe.” He held out the gold-painted onion. 

“Thanks.” She grabbed it without looking and shoved it into her locker. 

“Do you have a problem with me, Miss Swan?” He leaned against the row of lockers, like a James Dean facsimile. 

“I don’t if you don’t.” Bella slammed her locker shut. 

“You just don’t want to be friends, is that right?” he licked his lips.

Something about Edward was beginning to unsettle Bella. She remembered her revelation about Alice, the unnatural tautness of her skin. Bella could see now that Edward too looked like a stone man, as though someone had covered Michelangelo’s David in human skin and brought him to life. He was still handsome, more handsome than any other high school boy Bella had met before, but his appearance was distorting the more Bella looked at him. 

The glint of the fluorescents on his eyes seemed to reveal the faintest touch of red within his irises. He stood completely still. Bella finally spoke, her voice uneven, “I have enough friends, thanks though.”

She walked quickly away, almost stumbling, unnerved after her close scrutiny of Edward’s face. She would soon forget the eerie details of his appearance, remembering only that something about him was off. She thought of Eric’s description of Edward on their first day, “He’s really weird but no one can really say why.” She wondered briefly if others had noticed the predatory nature of his being- his stone skin, his deep black eyes, his frozen stillness- and had simply forgotten the details. 

Bella was reminded of the nightmares she had as a child. She would wake up in tears, her tiny frame shaking, but when Renee or Charlie would ask what had frightened her she could only respond with “It was just so scary.” 

She walked out the front doors of the school, hoping to get fresh air before lunch. She had already forgotten her ruminations on Edward. Lucy was sitting on a bench, staring up at the cloudy sky. 

“Hey, what are you doing out here?” Bella joined her.

“Oh, hey,” Lucy spoke slowly as she broke out of her musing, “the usual. Just skipping out on chem.”

Bella laughed, “You really always skip chem?”

“I go when there’s tests. You know. I tried to tell Mr. Roya, ‘you don’t have to go to classes in college as long as you ace the tests so why do I have to go to class now?’ But he just gave me detention, ha.” 

Bella shrugged, “Makes perfect sense to me.” She followed Lucy’s gaze to the clouds above them. “What are you thinking about?”

“Rain,” Lucy sighed.

“Thinking there’s too much of it?”

“No. I’m thinking about choices, I guess. Like, do you think rain would rather fall on the ground or back into the ocean?”

“I don’t think rain thinks anything,” Bella furrowed her brow. She couldn’t figure out where Lucy was going with this. 

“Okay, say you were a raindrop. Would you rather go into the ground where you’re useful you know, nourishing plants and shit, but as soon as you land, you’re all used up; or, would you rather go back into the ocean where you could keep on being water?” 

“Oh so it’s a metaphor.” Bella nodded and tilted her face toward the soft rain that was just beginning to fall. “It’s like, a choice between freedom and function, right?”

“I guess so.” Lucy frowned slightly.

“Don’t you think rain is most free when it’s in the air though? I think if I was a raindrop, I would want to stay in the cloud.” Bella looked toward Lucy who was shaking her head.

“You don’t get to stay in the cloud. And anyway, rain isn’t free in the sky. Once it’s up, it has to come down, the only question is where it lands.”

Bella sighed, “Why are you thinking about this stuff? I mean, why does it matter?”

“I don’t really know.” Lucy shrugged, “Just something to think about I guess.”

They sat in silence for a moment before Bella said, “Can I ask you something?”

“Shoot.”

“Why are you and Jessica still friends?” It had been bothering Bella since last week. 

“We were best friends when we were little,” Lucy smiled, “We had a lot of fun together. But then we got older and Jess got really… driven. Like, she knows exactly what she wants and exactly what she’s gonna do with her life. And it’s a good thing, right? Like, it’s cool that she’s so dedicated to something. But I guess it started to annoy her that I’m not. I think she means well, I just don’t want to plan everything out, you know?”

“And you still hang out because?”

Lucy stretched out on the bench, “It’s Forks, baby. Not too many different crowds to choose from.” The bell rang then and the girls walked to the cafeteria together, each lost in her own reflections.

Bella thought about Jessica. She had been unfair to write her off as a stereotypical overachiever. If Lucy could still see the good in Jess after their complicated friendship, Bella could give Jess a real chance. 

She felt slightly inspired after her conversation with Lucy. Bella was reminded of other similarly directionless conversations she had had with friends in California. In depth discussions over the meaning of life or the repercussions of time travel that never seemed to end on a resolution. Those conversations had always felt important too, in their own way. As if there were something crucial about exercising one’s human curiosity even with no hope of satiating the thirst for knowledge. 

Bella enjoyed getting lost in conversation at lunch. It didn’t matter what they had been talking about, she was determined to feel present with her new friends. She laughed with Ben and Tyler when Eric continued his passionate call for better news, she listened intently to Jessica’s anxieties over the upcoming dance, and she made plans with everyone for the upcoming week. Bella hadn’t even noticed Edward, sitting alone at a table across the room, staring right at her. 


	6. Edward Makes a Friend

Edward followed Bella to the benches by the parking lot. She had brushed off his attempt at friendship but he was still determined to unlock her mind. He worried that he had scared her off. He did frighten humans at times, unintentionally of course. Well, maybe not always unintentionally. 

Humans, like other prey species, are very adept at picking up on the marks of a predator. While vampires were designed to draw humans in, to attract them, their species also gives off a predatory aura. Humans move constantly, subconsciously. The saccadic movement of their eyes, the fidgeting of their limbs and digits, the pulsing of blood through their throats, keep humans in near perpetual motion even when they think they’re being still. Vampires have no such motions. 

An observant human could pick up on the subtle cues such as this that marked a vampire as Other. However, humans differ from other prey species in one crucial aspect: humans are very good at forgetting. The human brain does not like accepting anomalies and in fact works very hard to mask most of reality from human perception. Hopefully, even if Edward had scared Bella that day, she would forget his eeriness and accept him, as countless humans had before, as harmless. 

He watched as she sat with the girl named Lucy. Lucy’s thoughts were abstract, a swirl of words and images. Most humans thought verbally or visually but some, like Lucy, blended the two. Lucy’s thoughts now were a blur of nameless anxieties. Edward, well practiced at his gift, could make out the subconscious underpinnings of her fears. She was worried about her own future but that worry was expressing itself as ruminations on the everpresent rain. 

He listened in as Bella and Lucy talked about the rain and choices. Bella appeared to be struggling to follow Lucy but she seemed to realize that Lucy wasn’t really talking about the rain at all. Edward found himself, for the first time in a long time, interested in the way human minds worked. 

In the 1920’s, Edward had thought about using his gifts as a dream interpretation service. Hypnosis was very much in fashion in those days. He had been interested in the way subconscious fears morphed into dreams and contemplations that scarcely represented their root. But the years had jaded Edward and he had lost interest in human minds after spending so much time in them. 

Lucy’s mind was almost refreshing for Edward as he tried to see her through Bella’s eyes. He lingered for the duration of the girls’ brief conversation, nearly enjoying himself. Still, he hadn’t learned anything else about Bella. He did notice that she kept the conversation on Lucy- she wouldn’t be easy to figure out if she kept herself closed off even to the people she supposedly liked. He might have to rethink his approach to decoding her mind.

At lunch, Edward sat alone. A few of the girls that had trailed him tried to join him but he refused them. He had refocused all of his energy on Bella. He knew that he was becoming engrossed in the life of a human, something that Carlisle had forbade, but he couldn’t help himself. He was acting like a child, only wanting a toy once it’s been taken away. For so long he had lamented his gift, more of a curse according to Edward, but now that this one human was shielded to him, he was nearly ravenous with yearning for an understanding. 

How could he focus on anyone else? On anything else? A great mystery had been delivered unto him and who was he to resist it?

He wanted to ask Alice if this is what she had meant when she told him something big was coming. Did she know that he would appreciate the mystery presented by this girl? He couldn’t ask Alice though, she was spending lunch in the art room as usual. Not that she was missing anything, they didn’t need to eat. He also had assumed that if he tried to ask Alice, she would only present him with more questions. She was always so frustrating.

People were watching Edward, he could see himself through their eyes. He looked crazed but he didn’t care, he needed to hear as much as possible. Bella’s lunch chatter, however, was unrevealing. She didn’t talk about herself once- Edward had no idea if she had a boyfriend, a pet, parents, et cetera. Would she ever just say something useful?

Instead, Edward had to listen to Jessica’s inane complaints, Benjamin’s video game concept, and Eric’s feature proposal. Bella joined in with jokes or words of support but she never started her own conversation. What frustrated Edward most of all was that no one had asked Bella about herself either. It was as if they didn’t care at all.

Last week, the Lucy girl had asked Bella about San Francisco and Bella had responded like a tour guide. Edward had learned nothing of Bella and neither had her little friends. He had scanned their minds, he knew that they thought of her, but they didn’t know anything that could help him. 

Mike Newton, possibly the most annoying human Edward had ever met, thought about Bella constantly. Like most teen boys, however, he did not think of her as a person. He hated Mike for the objectifying things he thought about her. Edward could see the irony in this but he ignored it, choosing to maintain his private hatred of the boy. 

Angela Weber, one of the kindest humans in the school, thought Bella was pleasant. She was no help. Jessica Stanley just wanted to be Bella’s friend. Only Lucy had some real understanding of Bella as a person but still had no details to inform her mental image. There was nothing in any of the humans’ minds that would explain Bella to Edward. He had made no progress in understanding why she was mentally invisible to him. So he persisted. 

Edward skipped his next class so that he could listen in on Bella’s art class. He hoped she would be more open with Alice, who had a way of endearing herself to the humans. She could never truly bond with the humans without risking exposure but that didn't stop her from making friends. 

Unfortunately, Bella did not tell Alice anything useful either. They chatted idly about music as they worked, pausing occasionally to silently focus on their creations. Edward wanted to run into the room and shake the girl by her shoulders, as if he could physically remove the mental block that prevented him from understanding her. He couldn’t stand it anymore so he did the only thing that seemed appropriate: he left the school. Alice could run home. 

Edward abandoned his flashy car in the Cullen’s drive and ran to the place he always went when his emotions were running high. Rosalie had often referred to it as his Meltdown Meadow but he wouldn’t let her teasing ruin his favorite place. 

The meadow was miles from anyone, human or vampire, and Edward relished in the silence of it as often as he could. He needed to think, to try to understand his developing obsession. He paced around the clearing, tugging at his hair as he walked. He took a break from his thoughts on Bella to lament his nature- he lamented this often.

Out of everything he hated in this world, Edward reviled his condition most of all. He often replayed Carlisle’s early explanations of vampirism in his mind, searching for some reason for his being. All that Carlisle had taught him about what they were, how they had to live, made no sense to Edward. Even after all these years, Edward sometimes thought it was only a bad dream he could wake from. 

After he was first turned, Edward had run away from Carlisle and Esme. He wanted to experience the full breadth of his vampirism, as if to prove its absurdity to himself. He hunted humans, left them for dead, all over the United States. He hid in the shadows, he lived in the forests and darkened alleyways. That period, too, had felt like a horrible dream. 

He returned to Carlisle and Esme after several years. Rosalie had already joined them by then. She was the only one in their clan who hated vampirism as much as Edward. Yet, Rosalie adapted. She learned how to use her abilities for good, becoming an immortal source of kindness for the humans around them. Edward thought that the rest of the Cullens only pretended to be human because they all missed their old lives as much as he and Rose did. He hated pretending but he had hated embracing his vampirism even more. 

Edward stayed in the meadow for hours, circling around his storming feelings.  _ If I were a cartoon, there would be a cloud above my head _ , Edward laughed darkly to himself, grateful that no one could hear his insipid thoughts. He gave up on his unproductive ruminations and returned home. Alice was waiting for him in the driveway, arms crossed. 

She narrowed her eyes at him, “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“How long have you been standing there?” He smiled, feigning a confidence he didn’t feel. 

“Stop spying on me!” She hissed. “You can’t cheat your way through this, Edward.”

“Oh, so it is a game?” He raised an eyebrow and began walking inside. He could hear Emmett and Jasper’s minds working through strategic maneuvers for their complicated chess game. It was a game of their own invention, involving eight chess boards and several Clue pieces. Emmett had named it Chess 2: The Reckoning. 

Alice followed Edward inside, “It is not a game! Can you stop being so damn  _ weird  _ for once?”

“I’ll stop being weird when you let me know what the hell I’m supposed to be doing instead.”

Alice snapped her mouth shut. “You know I can’t do that,” she mumbled. 

“Then give me a hint! I’m supposed to figure this girl out, right? That’s why you were so excited for her?” Edward raised his arms in frustration. 

“I was excited for you!” Alice thrust her finger sharply into Edward’s ribcage. “You finally have the chance to-” she trailed off, afraid of revealing too much.

“The chance to what, Alice?” Edward shoved her hand away from him. The rest of the Cullens were listening now.

“You always think you know everyone before they even open their mouth! You never even try,” Alice looked down and added softly, “with humans or us.”

“So what, now I get to feel like a ‘real boy?’” Edward asked mockingly. 

“Edward,” Esme joined them, placing a hand softly on Edward’s shoulder, “I think you know Alice is right.” Esme opened her thoughts to Edward now, hoping to reach him.  _ You’ve been alone for so long, dear one. Maybe you aren’t frustrated because you can’t hear this girl. I think you’re afraid that you’ll have to open up first.  _ Edward scoffed, he didn’t need Esme’s pity. 

Emmett dropped his guard as well,  _ What’s the deal with this chick, Eddie? _ Emmett was the only one who called Edward by nicknames. Relatedly, he was also the strongest of them.

_ Are you having another tantrum, brother? _ Rosalie thought. Edward glared at her, “I do not have tantrums.” In response, Rosalie pulled up several memories of Edward’s past emotional bursts, a smirk on her face. 

Jasper was wondering what the fuss was about but he decided it wasn’t interesting.  _ If Edward wants to eat the human, I don’t see the big deal _ , he thought. Edward groaned, “I don’t want to kill her!” Jasper raised an eyebrow at Edward and returned to his game. 

_ I want to show you something, keep it to yourself _ , Alice thought. She let Edward watch as a vision played out in her mind. 

_ Bella is sitting atop her purple duvet. Her room is cluttered with books and trinkets. She’s on the phone with a woman. “Married?” she asks incredulously. “Aren’t you happy for me, baby?” the woman asks. “Of course, mama. Yes, I’m happy for you.” Bella throws her pencil down into her notebook. “When did he ask? I want all the details.” Bella’s voice is upbeat, at odds with her miserable expression. “Well, it was sort of sudden, we only just started dating.” the woman explains. “It isn’t the Shaman guy?” “No, Bells, that was eons ago. His name is Phil. Phil Dwyer. I’m gonna move to Jacksonville with him!” the woman squeals. Bella sighs and looks down, “When is the wedding?” “I was hoping you could help out with all that stuff, baby.” The woman talks to Bella like a servant. “Yeah, mama, I can help out. I gotta get back to homework, thanks for calling.” Bella hangs up and throws herself back on her duvet. The vision ends.  _

Edward paused to consider Alice’s revelation. That woman was really Bella’s own mother? Edward had trouble believing it. 

_ Do you understand now? _ Alice thought.  _ Her mind is the only place that is truly her own. If you really want to get to know her, and I think you do, you’ll need to be vulnerable too, or else she'll never open up.  _

Alice began mentally blasting ABBA’s Waterloo, a song that was guaranteed to annoy Edward. She joined Jasper on the couch. 

Esme’s hand was still resting tenderly on Edward’s shoulder as he contemplated. Was Esme right? Was he really just afraid? He shook Esme off and returned to his own room. 

He spent his sleepless night thinking about Bella and his own vulnerability. He could hear the rest of the Cullens’ thoughts from downstairs, they were all either concerned or annoyed with his current predicament. Even Carlisle couldn’t hide his worry and regret from Edward. 

Ultimately, Edward decided that Esme and Alice were wrong. He wasn’t afraid of opening up and he would never have to, either. He just loved a good mystery. 

***

Edward decided that he would try to approach Bella again on Tuesday. He assumed correctly that her mind would have already come up with an innocuous cover story for the unsettling effect he had had the day before. 

He had to suffer through his first three periods. A few of the girls he had been avoiding were in his classes and he was forced to listen to their snide overt comments and their insecure thoughts. All four girls he had been involved with before Bella arrived believed that they were responsible somehow for the revocation of his attention. Some tender part of him wanted to comfort the girls, to tell them each individually that it wasn’t their fault, that they deserved far better than him anyway. 

The tender part of him lost and he said nothing to the girls. He kept his jaw shut tight until his fourth period. He timed his arrival so that he and Bella could share a lab bench once more. He saw her groan as she noticed her designated seat. 

He pulled her chair out for her as she walked up to the table. “Mademoiselle,” he said lightly.

“Yeah. Hi.” She didn’t seem fearful, merely annoyed at the present company. 

“How are you today?” Edward was trying to lay the charm on thick. He was embarrassed to be ingratiating himself to a human but he had to learn more. 

“Fine.” Bella was sticking to one word answers. That was alright with Edward, he could adapt to the challenge. 

Mr. Molina had decided that today would be a video day. The rest of the class assumed he was having a lazy week but Edward knew Mr. Molina had been drinking lately, uninspired to craft real lesson plans apart from silly competitions and movies. He played an ancient VHS about cellular reproduction and Edward remembered when the video was a cutting edge educational tool- in 1988. 

He turned back to Bella, “You seem committed to rejecting my offer of friendship.”

She snorted, “Like I said before, I don’t need anymore friends, pretty boy.” She reddened slightly, she probably hadn’t meant to call Edward pretty. 

“Oh, I’m  _ pretty _ ?” he teased. 

Bella set her face in a stern expression and stared forward. 

Though they were speaking in whispers, Edward could hear Mr. Molina considering internally whether or not to make an example of them for talking through the video. Mr. Molina decided against it, he was too hungover for punitive justice. 

Edward finally added, “I’m only joking. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.”

“Your lack of self control isn’t my problem,” Bella snapped. She resumed her mock attentiveness to the video. 

“You’re completely right,” Edward thought that would warm her up. He had noticed that “you’re right” were like magic words for appeasing any woman, human or vampire. He used them to cut many of Esme’s lectures short in the past and they worked every time. He could see his assumption was correct as Bella’s posture softened and she leaned back into her chair. He decided to press on, “Could we start over?”

“From where? Before you insulted my friends? Before you started glaring at me every day? And by the way, what is that all about? Are you a racist or just a dick?”

Edward was shocked but he should have realized his leering would be interpreted like this. He scolded himself for not considering it sooner. “No, no, I-” he didn’t really know how to defend his stares. Could he say he was fascinated by her? Could he tell her  _ Well, actually I’m a mind reader but for some reason, I can’t read you _ ? 

He settled on a lame yet hopefully flattering excuse, “I just think you’re really pretty, too.” If he could blush he would have. What a pitiful thing to say to a human. 

Bella did blush at his compliment. She kept her eyes forward as she said, “That’s… sweet I guess. It doesn’t make you less of a creep, though.” She had a slight smile on her lips. 

Edward felt emboldened by his successfully flattery. “So let’s start from the very beginning,” he murmured. 

“I won’t promise anything,” Bella said. She looked thoughtfully at him before adding, “But if you are racist, I’ll shoot you.” She smiled, self satisfied and just a tinge prideful, like she was pleased with herself for setting a bar- even though it was a ridiculously low bar. 

Edward had lived through decades of overt racism in America and had, he felt, successfully unlearned his past bigotries but he would let Bella be the judge. “You got it,” he smiled at her. 

He was pleased that he had gotten her to give him a chance. His next phase wouldn’t be so easy. Edward knew if she were ever going to drop her mental guard around him, he would need to really earn her trust. And that was if her mental block was something she could even consciously control. 

He wondered about the point of his obsession then. What was his ultimate goal? Would he have to eventually accept that this human girl’s mind would never be accessible to him? Did he just want to know her so well that it were as if he could read her mind? Edward couldn’t fully pinpoint his motivations. Sometimes it felt as if he could read every mind but his own. The consequences of being an immortal teenager.

No matter his motivation, he now had a starting point for his investigations into the girl called Bella. He knew from watching her the past week that he would have to start small. Something light, something like, “So what kind of music do you like?”

Bella looked startled by his sudden question, “I guess I like everything. I never really tried to pin it down.”

He stared at her again, watching the blue light from the video reflecting off her warm brown eyes. She really was beautiful for a human. Her face was almost completely symmetrical already and Edward struggled to imagine how she might look as a vampire. Her skin would be clearer, for starters, though it was already nearly perfect. Her irises would change, too, turning into the deep black-red that marked all vampires for what they were. The lovely pink flush in her cheeks would vanish as well. 

For once, Edward thought that the human in front of him could not possibly be improved by turning. It was as if she was all the more beautiful for the humanity of her imperfections, her small acne scars, her uneven brows, the warmth of her skin. 

Edward abandoned this train of thought and asked, “Okay, then who are your favorites? If you had to pick.”

Bella sighed quietly and stared off into the distance, as though she was mentally running through a list of all the music she had ever heard, trying to choose. “Top ten?” She asked. 

“Sure,” Edward smiled at her, intentionally skewing the line of his face so that his preternatural perfection would not unnerve her again. 

“Okay I think I know my answer. And they’re not ranked so,” Bella blew a strand of hair from her face before continuing, “Simon and Garfunkel are probably up there, Pharcyde, Iron and Wine, The Miracles, um… Probably Miles Davis too and Fiona Apple for sure. I like Parliament a lot, The Pixies, Billie Holiday, and Herbie Hancock. If I had to narrow it down to a few.” 

Edward nodded appreciatively, “That’s a pretty expansive list.”

“What about you?” Bella spoke quickly, like she was eager to shift attention away from herself.

“I guess I like a little of everything, too.” Edward smiled to himself, he knew the less he said the more Bella would want to know.

She laughed quietly and continued feigning interest in the “educational” video Mr. Molina had chosen. 

Edward wondered if it was too early to ask her to join him at lunch. She hadn’t leaned toward him while they talked which was a sign he probably needed to wait. He wondered how long it would take to know her, to understand her. 

She had decided to give him a chance but based on what he knew of her so far, she would have given anyone a chance. She seemed to exist to help others, listen to them, encourage them. He thought she was committed to icing him out but she had softened within the span of one 42 minute long class, unused to upholding such a rigid boundary of hate. 

Edward could envision their course easily: he would reveal just enough of himself to earn her trust and she would open to him like a flower in the sun. Maybe it would take months, maybe it would take the rest of high school, but one way or another, Edward would crack her. 

He smiled to himself. He didn’t care how long it took- he had all the time in the world. 


	7. The Hunters Fight

The three hunters were taking their time. They could have made it to their destination and back three times over by now but they stalled for two reasons. One, their employer was very clear that they were to build suspense with their arrival, moving just slowly enough to manufacture a sense of foreboding dread. Two, they liked to play with their food.

“Are you quite sure we’re only supposed to leave one corpse every mile? It seems…anticlimactic.” The black haired one picked his teeth thoughtfully with a sharpened stick. 

“They never said we couldn’t leave more than one, right?” The blond was amusing himself by tormenting a small field mouse. The mouse squealed as he used his hands to cut off all its paths of escape. 

Victoria looked aghast, “We can’t risk pissing ‘em off! You remember what happened to Anadora way back when. Got her whole clan killed, that girl.” 

The blond tired of his game quickly and pierced clean through the field mouse with the sharpened nail on his pointer finger. The mouse let out a pitiful squeak as he speared it. He smiled, enjoying the pain of this lesser being.

The black haired male made a face of disgust as the blond licked his nail clean, “James, will you please focus?”

James hissed, “I am focused, Laurent! And I say, our bosses can piss off, let us kill what we want.”

The woman protested, “Piss off? And end up like Tommaso and his ilk? Travelin’ the world forever, hiding in shadows? Hunted? I’m not gonna live like that, not me.”

“Victoria,” Laurent purred, “don’t you think you’re being paranoid? Tommaso chose his fate when he showed the  _ humans  _ how to kill our kind.”

“I am not, I know what they do. And so do you. Every offense is the same to them.”

“They’re too cowardly to even leave their godforsaken castle!” James shouted. “Look at how the Romanians run circles around them, you know I heard one of them had himself a little coup d'etat in the Balkans a few years back. Overthrew a whole human government just cause he was bored.” 

“That can’t be true,” Laurent frowned at James. 

As James was opening his mouth with a rebuttal Victoria shouted, “Will you two just shut up? I’m sticking with the plan no matter what, you can join me or…”

Laurent ran a finger lightly over Victoria’s sharp cheekbone, “Victoria, my dear, of course we’re with you. Always.” 

“I’m just saying, we could just drop ‘em if we wanted to,” James mumbled. Laurent glared at him and he joined Victoria and Laurent in a flash. “I mean, yeah, I’m with you, Vic.”

Victoria smiled at her boys, content that she had convinced them to stay on track. 

She would have never let them disobey, anyway. She would have rather killed them herself than watch their employer tear them limb from limb. She had seen the Volturi at the peak of their power, watched as they razed whole covens of vampires in a single evening. And now she was working for them. 

The Volturi were the closest thing the vampires had to a government in their world. Their main function was maintaining secrecy; if too many humans were to discover that they shared the planet with vampires, the consequences could be disastrous. While vampires are stronger than humans, their numbers had dwindled over the centuries and the humans would easily be able to wipe out the entire race. Unfortunately for the three hunters, the Volturi were also collectors.

Any vampire with a notable skill was flagged by the Volturi who would send out trackers to keep tabs on the gifted vampire. Unbeknownst to the hunters, James had been noticed by the Volturi in the 19th century for his own tracking ability. Victoria and Laurent would often boast to other nomads that James was the best tracker in the world- and they were right. James’ skills were unmatched. 

The Volturi couldn’t let such talent go to waste for long and so they had enlisted James in their latest endeavor. Victoria and Laurent, of course, came along. James resented that he had been threatened to work for someone else. He was particularly agitated to be working for the Volturi who he viewed as a menace to vampires everywhere. He didn’t need a government to tell him to keep a low profile. 

James had been growing increasingly agitated as the hunters neared their final destination and it was beginning to show. He hadn’t meant to snap at Victoria and Laurent but he felt like a trapped tiger, pacing its enclosure. He was furious that Victoria wouldn’t even consider abandoning the job. She was right that their failure would guarantee a life of hiding but James couldn’t understand how that would be any different than their life now.

They already lived as though they were wanted criminals, a different town every night, a different country every year. James thought that having a Volturi guard on their tail would only add excitement, and he needed some excitement. 

As much as he wanted to flee from his orders, James could never really leave Victoria and Laurent. They had come to mean too much to him over the centuries and try as he might to deny it, he cared for them. But he was stubborn, still uncomfortable with the present arrangement.

“But Victoria,” he began after a long silence, “couldn’t you use  _ your  _ gifts to protect us if we ran?” Victoria looked distressed at James’ suggestion. She stared into Laurent’s eyes, desperate for support. 

“James, Victoria’s penchant for escaping only protects her, you know that,” Laurent drawled. 

“I know that. But maybe it would be enough if she could survive. I would rather die than work for the lecherous scum anyday.” James set his jaw, determined to find some way out of the arrangement. 

“Are you suggesting that you and I get ourselves killed because you hate our employer? Is that it?” Laurent stared incredulously at James. James and Victoria were his partners but he would never willingly die just so that James could have his way.

Victoria wailed, piercing the evening sky. “We are sticking to the plan! And you-” she stabbed a sharp finger into James’ gut, “are gonna drop this!”

Laurent looked deeply into James’ eyes, awaiting his concession.

“Yes, ma’am.” 

The three hunters moved onward.


	8. Charlie Hosts Dinner

Charlie Swan was overwhelmed. Bushwhacked, as he’d say. His job wasn’t glamorous, in fact it was usually downright depressing. Charlie had been the Chief Medical Examiner for Clallam County for the past few years- he’d lost track of the time. Thankfully most of his work was cut and dry, there weren’t too many murders in the county so Charlie’s main function was writing death certificates for everyone in the county that had died alone and unattended. 

He had had to identify a few animal attacks in his time, mostly young hikers that hadn’t known how to tie up their food bags properly. This past week though had been a doozy. There had already been over a dozen animal attacks throughout the county and they seemed to be getting closer to Forks every day. 

Charlie knew something was off about the bodies- he knew animal attacks and these weren’t it. No one in the Fork’s Police Department was taking the attacks seriously. Even the park rangers had decided to dedicate a task force for hunting down whatever critter had been eating the hikers. They assumed some rabid beast was to blame but Charlie knew they were wrong, he just couldn’t get anyone to listen.

On top of his work frustrations, Charlie was also trying to process the return of his daughter. He was elated that she had come to live with him but her arrival brought on a slew of other emotions as well, feelings that Charlie didn’t know how to handle. 

He was angry with Renee for her selfishness- how could a mother choose traveling with a fleeting boyfriend over her own daughter? He was also reminded of the pain of losing Renee that first time, the old wounds reopened by Bella’s presence. What’s more, he didn’t know the first thing about teen girls. Bella had been an easy child but that didn’t always translate to an easy adolescence, Charlie knew. What if she got into trouble? Could he even remember the warning signs of drug abuse or eating disorders or any of the other million things that could befall a teen girl?

Charlie had begun reading parenting books the minute Bella had called him to say she was moving back in. Most of the books told him what he already knew, respect your teen, give her space, let her make mistakes. It brought him small comfort to think he had already been on the right track. Still, his anxieties persisted. He worried about embarrassing Bella, he worried about sharing his house with another for the first time in years, and he worried that Bella would be disappointed in him, let down by the decline in excitement and vitality from her old life. 

But Charlie didn’t have the capacity to translate his raw nerves into cathartic conversation so he dug into his work instead. Even though it was frustrating, it was grounding to focus on something tangible.

Charlie had examined three “animal attacks” in the past week. All three corpses had been ripped apart at the throat, chest, and arms, as if there had been multiple animals attacking in tandem. The police and the rangers wouldn’t take Charlie’s word for this as he still couldn’t prove that the wounds had been inflicted simultaneously. He could only prove that the victims had been alive when the animals began to feast. 

He needed to vent his concerns to someone who would listen so that weekend he invited Harry Clearwater and Billy Black over for dinner and drinks. Billy and Harry had been through hell and back with Charlie when Renee left and then again when Billy’s own wife left him. Even though the men had never talked explicitly about the pain of their losses, they understood each other well and cared for one another deeply. Charlie could always count on them to listen when he needed an ear.

Harry and Billy rolled in early Saturday evening with Billy’s boy Jacob in tow. He had insisted on joining his father and Charlie figured Jacob could keep Bella company while the men talked. Charlie didn’t want Bella hearing about the grisly deaths he’d been dealing with. 

When Bella heard the door swinging open, she stumbled down the stairs, running straight to wrap Jacob in a hug. Charlie and Billy shared a warm look. Charlie wouldn’t push anything but he thought it would be nice to share a family with his best friend and he saw how brightly Bella glowed in Jacob’s presence. It could just be the warmth of familiarity but Charlie and Billy both hoped it would turn out to be more. 

“We’re gonna hang upstairs until dinner, dad!” Bella announced as she led Jacob up the steps. 

“You kids have fun,” Billy winked at Charlie. 

“Alright, you boys ready to get your hands dirty?” Harry set down the heavy cooler he’d carried in with a thump. 

Charlie opened the cooler, inspecting its contents, “Perch?” He nodded appreciatively. 

“Fresh caught this morning,” Billy boasted, “Though I did most of the catching.”

“You better shut up, old man,” Harry said with a laugh. Charlie carried the cooler into the kitchen and brought out his dedicated knife collection. 

Scaling and deboning fish together before a meal had been a ritual for the three men for the past decade, at least. They enjoyed the shared meditation of the task and bonding as they worked. All three men felt that a meal a man had to work for always tasted sweeter than any meal money could buy. They worked quietly, only speaking to jovially criticize one another’s technique. Jacob and Bella’s racious laughter carried down the stairs and Charlie began to whistle.

He was grateful that his house had been filled with company and laughter once more. He could always go to La Push and spend time with Harry’s family when he needed the company but it had been a long time since his own home had felt so full. 

As Harry was frying the perch, Charlie asked “You’ve been keeping your boys outta the woods, lately, right?”

Billy raised an eyebrow, “Do we need to?”

“Been some attacks, getting closer to town every other day.” Charlie peered down the mouth of his beer bottle.

“Know what’s been getting ‘em?” Harry asked as he set out the freshly fried fish.

Charlie heaved a sigh, “I got some idea. I want to talk to you about it after dinner, see if you got any insight.”

“What, cops aren’t helping you out?” 

“Like they ever do,” Billy scoffed. 

“Nah, they’re siding with the rangers on this one.” Charlie downed the last of his beer. 

“Think we should warn our folk?” Harry flicked off the burners one by one.

Charlie nodded, “I think you’d better.”

Harry turned down the corners of his mouth, a mix of concern and consideration. He shook the expression as he walked to the bannister and shouted up, “Dinner’s ready!” 

There was a loud thump from upstairs followed by laughter as Jacob called, “Yeah, we’re coming!” He bounded down the stairs easily, trailed by Bella, her socks slipping on the wooden steps. 

“Smells great, Harry!” Bella patted Harry’s arm as she made her way to the seldom used dining room.

He grinned, “Harry Clearwater’s-”

“Famous fish fry!” Everyone finished in tandem. 

Harry flushed but kept his smile, “Do I really say it that much?”

Jacob spoke with his mouth full, “Only every time you make it.”

“So every other week or so,” Billy playfully nudged Jacob with his elbow. 

As they ate, Charlie kept the conversation light, careful to navigate away from any topic that might lead back to the mounting death toll in the area. He had told Bella to keep away from the woods, doubting that she’d have much interest in hiking anyway. Still, he didn’t want her to worry about whatever may be lurking in the old forests. He also knew that Bella and Jacob were both prone to believe in the paranormal. He didn’t want them concocting some fantastical explanation for the mysterious deaths, or worse, trying to figure it out themselves.

After dinner, Bella and Jacob began to clear and wash the dishes but Charlie ushered them away, “We got this, Bells, why don’t you kids go play Scrabble?”

“Scrabble, dad?” Bella looked incredulous.

“I think he wants to get rid of us, Bella.” Jacob laughed. 

Bella narrowed her eyes at Charlie, suspicious now, “Okay, we can head upstairs I guess.”

Charlie groaned internally,  _ Tenacious thing _ , he thought. He waited until he heard Bella’s door close before turning to Harry and Billy, still seated at the table.

“Alright, now there’s something you both need to know about these attacks.” A floorboard creaked. Charlie continued. 


End file.
